DJ Rahdu – Music Heads

As an 80’s baby, I grew up listening to all kinds of music. I used to park in front of the TV with my brother at my grandmother’s house, watching MTV for hours on end in my uncle’s room with EWF, Isaac Hayes and Patrice Rushen album covers taped or tacked to the wall right next to AC/DC stickers. The radio jocks actually broke music back then and the radio format was so wide, there was literally something for everyone. Radio was black or white then, as it is now, but we used to flip between stations throughout the day just taking in what was offered. I had no preference, as long it had that je ne sais quoi, I was entertained.

Growing up in the inner city I was exposed to Hip Hop, of course, but it wasn’t until my brother “recovered” Public Enemy’s It takes A Nation of Millions from school that an album actually spoke to me. I took the cassette and my Walkman with me on a class field trip to Tuskegee, played it and it was one of those “You’re supposed to be right here, experiencing this right now” moments. What I learned that day headed to, from, and while at Tuskegee ensured my musical and philosophical paradigm was broken, shattered, and completely irreparable. I know for certain I was rocking a lot of West Coast then, but my preference quickly switched to KRS, X Clan and Brand Nubian. They were saying things no one had ever said to me: where I was from, who I am, whose shoulders I stand on and so much more. My thirst for knowledge was awakened.

I won’t go into my full musical story here, but by college I was digesting a steady cocktail of East Coast Hip Hop and New Orleans rap until my good friend turned me on to Detroit’s Slum Village. My musical diet literally changed overnight. I absolved myself of popular music, to my detriment, and primarily through Hip Hop samples eventually got a taste of Donald Byrd, Roy Ayers and Grover Washington. A sincere love of rare grooves was born and it remains one of the genres I keep on my phone at all times.

I don’t know why exactly I began this picture but by the time I completed the Roy Ayers album cover I knew who I was doing it for, my fellow Music Heads: those cats with bountiful knowledge of musical minutia that astounds some and appalls others. Cats who would buy an album before food, possess the obscure tracks you’ve heard about, but never actually heard and would gladly share it with you while blessing you with more gems and musical history than you know what to do with. Cheers!